Now would be an amazing time to take a deep dive into the domestic politics of the Philippines and how the prior President’s trial for crimes against humanity is going.

Duterte, who governed the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was surrendered to the ICC in March last year over his sweeping anti-narcotics crackdown that Philippine police acknowledged killed more than 6,000 suspects, though rights groups put the true toll as high as 30,000.

At pre-trial hearings that began in February, Duterte was accused of three counts of crimes against humanity – covering murder and, in one count, attempted murder – as “an indirect co-perpetrator” who had conspired with police to kill drug war victims.

Prosecutors pointed to the notorious Davao Death Squad – a shadowy group long accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings in Duterte’s southern home city – saying he had “personally selected some of the targets” as mayor and later as president, and had told police whom to take out, with cash rewards as incentives.

Among the atrocities he was accused of was encouraging officers not to spare even children.

Oh well, anyway. Try not to think to hard about the parallels between The Philippines and Israel.